15 onpage seo techniques to help increase your website rankings

On-page SEO is the SEO techniques you apply within a page, such as in the content, title of the page and so on.

Like other SEO techniques, on-page SEO has undergone significant changes.

In the past you could create articles of about 500 words. And you stuff the keywords you want to rank for in there.

You don’t care about the quality of the article. In other words, you’re trying to ” beat ” the search engine and ignore the guest experience.

In the past, those techniques have made it easier for you to rank well in search engines.

But fortunately, search engines have become smarter. The techniques of keyword stuffing in articles and spam backlinks to climb to the first place are no longer working.

It’s hard to believe you can stay at the first place in Google for long if you still apply these techniques

So what are the onpage SEOs you should apply?

In this article, I have summarized the onpage SEO strategies you should pursue.

As a rule, remember:

Sustainable on-page SEO techniques are towards customer satisfaction. Because that is also the goal that Google constantly updates the search algorithm.

On-page SEO in that direction, even if Google’s algorithm changes, you can rest assured to sleep well.

Read more : Best rated SEO course on Udemy.

1. Use SEO Friendly URLs

According to Google, the first 3-5 words in a URL carry more weight than other words. Shorter URLs rank better in Google. So keep the URL short.

When installing WordPress, it is recommended to configure the permalink to have an SEO-friendly URL. You go to Settings -> Permalinks :

Also, include your target keyword in the URL.

For example:

Unfriendly URL: https:///?p=123

Friendly URL: https:///seo-onpage/

2. Start the title with the keyword

There is no doubt: the title (meta title) of the article is very important in the eyes of Google.

In general, you try to put the keyword as close to the beginning of the title tag as possible. For example, this article I optimized for onpage seo keyword, so I put this keyword in the first position of the title.

Note: Don’t try to always start your title with a keyword. You should do it naturally.

In other words, the written title must be meaningful and attractive to the reader. We write for readers first and then search engines. Always remember that rule.

In addition, you need to keep the title to no more than 55 characters in length. Because if the title is too long, Google will cut it and replace it with a .

As such, users do not read your full title in search results. Usually such a truncated title will confuse the user.

And they have no reason to click on such results.

With Yoast SEO, you can easily control the title length for SEO optimization. Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that helps you do onpage SEO very well. You can refer to my Yoast SEO configuration articlehere . 

3. Have a keyword in the first 100 words

Yoast SEO will check if the target keyword appears in the first paragraph of the article. This helps Google clearly know the topic of your article.

But don’t try to force yourself to include keywords in the first paragraph if it makes your paragraphs feel awkward and unnatural.

In general, your keyword should appear in the first 100 – 150 words of the article.

4. Use Outbound Links

Outbound links are links back to pages outside of your website. This is a simple white hat SEO technique.

Using outbound links to related pages helps Google understand the topic of your page. You try to use 2-4 outbound links per 1000 words.

You also pay attention to link to reputable sites with as high DA (Domain Authority) as possible.

You can use Moz’s Open Site Explorer tool to get the DA of any website you want. 

Besides, this tool also has an add-on for Chrome browser. You should install it because it helps you to know many important parameters when browsing any website in Chrome.

Regarding using nofollow or dofollow when using outbound links, you should use dofollow for reputable, high DA sites.

5. Use internal links

Internal linking is great for SEO. It helps Google index your page better

You should link to 2-5 old articles every time you publish a new article.

Using internal linking is also a technique that pushes the power of one site’s ranking to another. Let’s say you have a page in the first place. And a page with a lower position. This is usually a new site, so the ranking is not high.

You can create a link from a page with a higher order to a new page with a lower ranking.

Of course, you have to make sure that the two pages are related to each other. Doing so improves the ranking of the page with a lower position.

Generally when you use internal linking, you must create natural links. Such links give the reader a deeper understanding of the subject matter they are investigating. Here is an example of an internal link that I use:

6. Improve Website Speed

Google claims page load speed is one of the ranking factors .

You can use GTMetrix to test your page loading speed. Make sure your page doesn’t take 4 seconds to load.

Remember that it will be difficult for users to return to your site if its speed is too slow.

If you are still struggling to solve the speed problem, I have a detailed article on speeding up WordPress .

Note: Hosting service also affects the loading speed of the website. For shared host, try to use quality hosting service

7. Use LSI . keyword

LSI keywords  are synonyms Google uses to determine the relevancy of a web page for a search query. Include a few LSI keywords in your article.

How to find LSI keywords?

The simple way you pull down the Search Related section when you search by the main keyword in Google. At this point, you will see the LSI keywords you can use in the article.

Or you can use the SEOPressor plugin .

8. Optimize images.

After all, Google is just a machine it can’t “see” to know about the image in the article. You need to hint it about the image. Thereby it also understands more about the topic of your article.

Here is the technique:

Make sure at least the name of the image contains the target keyword.

Next, the image alt tags also contain the target keyword.

9. Use social sharing buttons

Social signals are not part of Google’s ranking algorithm. But if many people share your article or website on popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Google+, your website can gain indirect ranking.

So add social sharing buttons to your website.

Note : AddMeFast  is a website that helps you increase social shares. It is very useful if your website is still new.

10. Write longer content

Longer content means you have a better chance of ranking higher in Google.

Gone are the days when you wrote 200-500 word content. And hopefully can result in good ranking in Google.

As a rule, write articles over 1000 words that contain useful content for the reader.

A great advantage when you write long-form content:

You can pull a huge amount of traffic for long-tail keywords (3+ words long keywords).

However, long content doesn’t mean that you stuff your article with a bunch of rubbish with the aim of increasing the word count. You still have to ensure the quality of the content.

Don’t waste your readers’ precious time with bland and useless content.

Conclusion : writing long, high-quality content is a multi-targeted arrow.

11. Comments are encouraged

Comments are very helpful in ranking. In fact, comments on your blog also count as a piece of content.

If your post gets a lot of high quality comments (not spam), it will rank very well in Google. Because comments will add tons of keywords related to the article, just like the LSI mentioned above.

So please encourage your readers to comment. The common practice is to ask questions at the end of each article.

12. Actively use multimedia files

In general, a text-only article will hardly attract readers. So please actively add images, videos, and diagrams in this article. After all, humans process images and videos faster than plain text.

In addition, actively using multimedia files lowers the bounce rate and keeps readers longer on your site. The time readers visit the website is also an important factor in Google ranking.

13. Responsive Design

In 2015 Google penalized pages that were not mobile-friendly. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. Can you use Google tools  to check if your site is displaying well on handheld devices?

In general, the design problem is not optimized for mobile or occurs in old website systems.

If you use WordPress, you don’t need to worry about this. Nearly all WordPress themes today support optimal display for handheld devices.

14. Maximum organic CTR

The page title (meta title) and the page description (meta description) are very important factors in attracting visitors to the website. This is the information that catches the eyes of users when they search in Google.

Meta title and meta description must attract the reader. Promising solutions to the problem they’re looking for.

Those are the factors that increase the CTR click through rate (the percentage of people clicking in the search results).

Why is CTR important?

Let’s say, for some reason, your page title and description don’t make users click when they search for the keyword you are targeting.

Google understands that your page does not match the keyword being searched.

The result is :

Search engines will bring your site down to a lower position. Of course, then your site will receive less traffic.

In the opposite direction:

Let’s say your page position is number 6. On average this position you will get 4% of clicks. But for some reason you get 10% of the clicks.

Google understands that users want to see this result. And there’s no reason why Google shouldn’t put the page up higher to make it easier for users to find the results they want.

In short, Google uses CTR as a ranking factor .

So how to improve CTR:

As I mentioned, you have to make sure the title and meta description are attractive. It must convince readers that your article will provide the right solution, answer to the problem they are looking for.

To do so, you must put your feet in the guest’s shoes. Sneak into their minds. Put yourself in their place. Understand their intent when searching on Google.

Technically you make sure the title length is no more than 55 characters.

You can identify articles with low CTR using Google Webmaser Tool.

Go to Search Traffic -> Search Analytics , select Clicks , Impressions , CTR and Position. Now you will know the article you have low CRT.

15. Use keywords in H2 . tags

You use the H2 tag as subheadings to divide the logic of the article. This tag makes the article clearer and easier to read.

The H2 tag is the perfect place to use the long tail keyword you want to rank for.

As always, you must make the H2 tag look natural, avoiding keyword stuffing.

For example: The title below “SEO onpage checklist” I am putting in the H2 tag. This phrase is also a long tail keyword.

SEO on-page checklist

Also, if your English is good, you can refer to AuthorityHacker’s on-page seo article . 

Epilogue

Writing quality content is not enough.

You will hardly rank high in Google search results if you do not practice on-page SEO techniques correctly.

Using only on-page SEO techniques will also help your site rank well for keywords with low to medium competition. They even get you good results with a few highly competitive keywords.

Apply onpage SEO techniques in the article today.

You will soon receive sweet fruit.

What on-page SEO techniques are you using? How effective are they? Please share your onpage SEO experience below?